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G5 Xserve opinion

P

powermi

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 6, 2013
179
14
Avila (Spain)
Hello, i am looking to buy a powermac g5 just for photo edition and other things like music conversion. i have a few powermacs g4 but i would like to have more power to make the things done before.

nowadays is quite expensive to buy G5, but sometimes i see on ebay some xserve with dual processor in a pretty good price. and i would like to know the differences between the normal tower and the xserve.

i expect the xserve to be nosier but with the same efficiency.

thanks for the advices!
 
The Xserve is not "noisier", it is insane, at least from what I can remember when I dealed with one (can't remember if it was the G4 or the G5).
You must remember that the Xserve doesn't have proper graphic card, and from what I can see on everymac it doesn't have pci-e slot.
Maybe an expert will come and talk about it.
 
thanks, i was afraid for the noise too.
it seems that you finally have bought the powerG5, correct? could you give your first impressions? a Quad must be a beast!

cheers.
 
powermi said:
thanks, i was afraid for the noise too.
it seems that you finally have bought the powerG5, correct? could you give your first impressions? a Quad must be a beast!

cheers.
Click to expand...

Yes I am managed to find one that wasn't at the same price of a macbook pro :p
I will pick it up today , and if I have some time (next week is full of exams) I will give you some feedback =)
 
powermi said:
thanks, i was afraid for the noise too.
it seems that you finally have bought the powerG5, correct? could you give your first impressions? a Quad must be a beast!

cheers.
Click to expand...

Ask me about quad, I have almost seen it all.

Skin, that's a good find. That quad will last you longer than you think. You will feel much luckier if you have the single pump.
 
here is quite hard to find a Quad for less than 300, so i think that my only option would be to buy a dual 2,3 (cause the more reliable) and thats why i could consider the Xserve.
but one handicap for the xserve would be the specific hardware to run on it... i mean special HDs, RAM etc...
 
Nameci said:
Ask me about quad, I have almost seen it all.

Skin, that's a good find. That quad will last you longer than you think. You will feel much luckier if you have the single pump.
Click to expand...

I think that in 2013, if the pump hasn't leaked in 8 years ? It's a good pump :p Single or dual. Anyway, in my case I have a dual (seems that almost all Quad in province of Quebec are dual pumps...) and it seems okay. But, I'm looking to maybe try to customize the LCS module to put two Corsair LCS (still not sure if it would works).

Btw. What do you do with your G5 to require 16 GB of RAM ? I could probably have 4 GB with it and it would be fine. (I can't do virtualization like on my Intel Mac due to the lack of application...)

powermi said:
here is quite hard to find a Quad for less than 300, so i think that my only option would be to buy a dual 2,3 (cause the more reliable) and thats why i could consider the Xserve.
but one handicap for the xserve would be the specific hardware to run on it... i mean special HDs, RAM etc...
Click to expand...

The dual 2.3 GHz are kind of rare. But yes, for an air cooled G5, it's the best ones. An Xserve G5 would be extremely loud. I have an Xserve RAID filled with 750 GB drives, and well... The fans are always at ~3000 RPM and kind of loud (~60-65 dB when you're at a few cm of the front).
 
Nameci said:
Ask me about quad, I have almost seen it all.

Skin, that's a good find. That quad will last you longer than you think. You will feel much luckier if you have the single pump.
Click to expand...

The owner said he have seen some G5 with leakings and rust but this one hasn't got it ,so guess it was nice.
If the thing fails, I will rebuild it and buy a laing pump.

About 2.3GHz if you can find it go for it!
Here the only one I have seen for sale was @450Eur, my Quad was 230Eur.
 
CptSky said:
I think that in 2013, if the pump hasn't leaked in 8 years ? It's a good pump :p Single or dual. Anyway, in my case I have a dual (seems that almost all Quad in province of Quebec are dual pumps...) and it seems okay. But, I'm looking to maybe try to customize the LCS module to put two Corsair LCS (still not sure if it would works).

Btw. What do you do with your G5 to require 16 GB of RAM ? I could probably have 4 GB with it and it would be fine. (I can't do virtualization like on my Intel Mac due to the lack of application...)
Click to expand...

I do some CAD stuff, 3D modeling of mechanical parts. Some Illustrator, PS. Editing some videos from time to time with FCS2. Everything that would catch my fancy, except gaming, I don't game. Playing music. And of course 16GB for the bragging rights.

Right now I am in China, so the significant other is using it for ichat and casual web browsing and youtube.
 
Nameci said:
I do some CAD stuff, 3D modeling of mechanical parts. Some Illustrator, PS. Editing some videos from time to time with FCS2. Everything that would catch my fancy, except gaming, I don't game. Playing music. And of course 16GB for the bragging rights.

Right now I am in China, so the significant other is using it for ichat and casual web browsing and youtube.
Click to expand...


What cad and 3d modeling do you use for mechanical parts?
I am studying mechanical engineering, and although I have the thinkpad it doesn't hurt to know what can I run on the G5.
 
From Mactracker, the first XServe G5 has 2 - PCI-X 133MHz 64-bit.

The second Xserve G5 has 2 - PCI-X 133MHz 64-bit (1 card at 133MHz or 2 at 100MHz).

The cluster nodes from each time period have the same kind of connections.
 
skinniezinho said:
What cad and 3d modeling do you use for mechanical parts?
I am studying mechanical engineering, and although I have the thinkpad it doesn't hurt to know what can I run on the G5.
Click to expand...

I am a mechanical engineer too.

I have turbocad for Mac and an old version of Modo. I really wanted to work in the Petro-Chem industry but luck pushed me in the equipment manufacturing instead. Now, I am relegated to a desk job. Sucks!
 
-1 for the noise of an Xserve! I bought a Single 2GHz G5 out of interest and for the price (with unlimited clients, btw).
I can not understand, when people talk about any other Mac as sounding like a jet engine. The Xserve really does! I feared it was defective and might "exlplode" (not literally ;)) every moment.

When people here advice you the Dual 2,3GHz, keep in mind there are two. One with PCI-X, max of 8GB RAM, type PC3200 DDR400, one Gigabit port, etc. the other with PCIe, max of 16GB PC4200 DDR533 RAM, two Gigabit ports, faster FSB,... People on EBay do not quiet differentiate between them or follow the "nick-naming" scheme.
 
Last edited:
Cox Orange said:
-1 for the noise of an Xserve! I bought a Single 2GHz G5 out of interest and for the price (with unlimited clients, btw).
I can not understand, when people talk about any other Mac as sounding like a jet engine. The Xserve really does! I feared it was defective and might "exlplode" (not literally ;)) every moment.

When people here advice you the Dual 2,3GHz, keep in mind there are two. One with PCI-X, max of 8GB RAM, type PC3200 DDR400, one Gigabit port, etc. the other with PCIe, max of 16GB PC4200 DDR533 RAM, two Gigabit ports, faster FSB,... People on EBay do not quiet differentiate between them or follow the "nick-naming" scheme.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for the advice, if i would find any dual 2,3 ill better take the PCIe one then.
i dont know if its the same issue with the dual 2,0. here in Spain the most of the powermacs G5 are single processor only, some duals, and no quads at all.
 
powermi said:
Thanks a lot for the advice, if i would find any dual 2,3 ill better take the PCIe one then.
i dont know if its the same issue with the dual 2,0. here in Spain the most of the powermacs G5 are single processor only, some duals, and no quads at all.
Click to expand...

Grab the PCie one, DDR2 is much cheaper (and faster), pcie cards are cheaper to find (and faster!).
The guy that sold me my Quad has a 2.0 Dual, if you want to take a coffee in Portugal and come to grab it I'll pay you the coffee :p
 
powermi said:
Thanks a lot for the advice, if i would find any dual 2,3 ill better take the PCIe one then.
i dont know if its the same issue with the dual 2,0. here in Spain the most of the powermacs G5 are single processor only, some duals, and no quads at all.
Click to expand...

On the Dual 2GHz there are even 4 variations, but only one of them is with PCIe. (When you get your Mac on Ebay, first go to "about this Mac" or look at the bottom line in the case. Lately I had someone at Ebay who wanted to sell me a Dual 1,8GHz as a Dual 2,7GHz!).

PS: when you are from Spain and you say, there are not a lot of Dual G5s. Maybe you want to search for international auctions on Ebay or on the German Ebay.de, I see more there. Shipping from GER to Sapin is 42,-EUR (with DHL shipping), 29,-EUR (Hermes shipping, but only till 25kg, but as far as I know the PowerMacs are about 22kg), you might also ask for shipping quotes from GLS or iloxx. Maybe the seller can find a good one. Problem is, DHL does not include the Spanish isles at that weight and Hermes only supports a few Spanish isles.
 
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thanks for all the advised... i am considering the coffee in Portugal too, ejjeje, maybe soon.
about the powermac g5 my intention is expend about 150 - 200 including shipping, and here in Spain there are some for the price but i would like to get one in a great condition.
Its estrange that every coin that i expend on the x86 architecture hurts me, but when it comes to expend that money on powerpc is a pleasure.

thats the difference between waste and invest. jejeje.
 
after looking some G5 here i could buy this for 100 eur. opinions? thanks.
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its a dual 2,0 ghz, the RAM seems to work at 400. But it does not include HD and RAM. i have a few modules of DDR2, and some HD in good condition.
 
would you take it? sure? i think that is better to pick up a dual 2,3 cause the difference whit the dual 2,0 and the DDR2 vs DDRD would be significant? dont you agree?

is a good price even for a powermac without RAM and HD?
 
powermi said:
would you take it? sure? i think that is better to pick up a dual 2,3 cause the difference whit the dual 2,0 and the DDR2 vs DDRD would be significant? dont you agree?

is a good price even for a powermac without RAM and HD?
Click to expand...

it all depends on how much the dual 2.3 costs and how much ram do you need.
PC3200 in 1Gb dimm flavour sometimes can be found for about 10-17eur stick
DDR2 you can choose from 533,667 or 800 and I guess sometimes you can buy 4x1Gb for about 25-30eur on ebay, depends on the luck.
 
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